MASSACRE FALLOUT HITS CORPORATE U.S.

Maker of assault rifle used in Conn. shootings for sale

The reaction to the Newtown, Conn., shootings spread to corporate America and to California on Tuesday, as a private equity firm said it would immediately sell the company that made the assault-style rifle used in shootings, while California lawmakers announced an attempt to regulate the sale of ammunition more tightly.

The legislation, being introduced by state Sen. Kevin de Leon, a Democrat from Los Angeles, would require anyone looking to purchase ammunition for any kind of weapon to undergo a background check and obtain a one-year permit costing $50. The legislation would also ban the sale of ammunition in California by mail, requiring transactions be done in person.

Democrats said that given the party’s increasing control of the Legislature — where they control two-thirds of the seats, in both the Assembly and Senate — they were confident the legislation could pass swiftly and hoped it would set a model for other states.

In announcing the sale of the gun manufacturer, the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management made clear the decision stemmed from the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newton. “It is apparent the Sandy Hook tragedy was a watershed event that has raised the national debate on gun control to an unprecedented level,” Cerberus said in a statement.

The firm said it planned to sell the Freedom Group, which makes the .223 Bushmaster rifle used in the massacre. Cerberus acquired Bushmaster in 2006, later merging it with other gun companies to create the Freedom Group.

Tuesday’s announcement follows a statement from the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, a $154 billion pension fund, that it was reviewing its investment in Cerberus in light of the firm’s holding in the Freedom Group.

Separately, Dick’s Sporting Goods, the national chain, suspended the sale of “modern sporting rifles.” Dick’s Sporting Goods, as part of its announcement, also said it had “removed all guns from sale and from display in our store nearest to Newtown.”

Around the country, gun-control advocates continued Tuesday to seize on public grief and anger about Friday’s massacre of 20 children to insist on quick, broad action by President Barack Obama and Congress to regulate firearms, confront mental illness and address violence in the media and video games.

The White House hinted at the kinds of gun measures Obama would embrace. In the past, the president has endorsed reinstatement of an expired ban on assault weapons without putting any political muscle into it on the calculation that the votes were not there. This time, he’ll be “actively supportive” of a fresh legislative effort, said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary. The president will also support closing a gun show loophole, and “potentially” limits on high-capacity ammunition clips of the sort used in Newtown, Carney said.

But Carney said the president hoped to go beyond just gun regulation.

“While he supports strongly renewal of the assault weapons ban, and strongly other measures, he wants to expand the conversation beyond those specific areas of legislation to look at other ways we can address this problem,” he said.